Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

You make a will that specifies that. You can accomplish this several ways depending on what you have. (1) You could set up a revocable living trust, naming your daughter as beneficiary, and upon her death, the grandchildren; (2) you could set up a regular will, but have a testamentary trust in your will again naming your daughter as beneficiary and the grandchildren as contingent beneficiaries. With either of these methods, the property does not ever go to your daughter directly. Its held in trust and your trustee doles out the income and principal, if any, to your daughter as specified in the trust terms. (3) If you are talking about land, then you could leave your daughter a life estate and make your grandchildren as the beneficiaries. If you own the land free and clear, you would see a real estate attorney about creating a new deed. You should also keep a life estate in the land for you. There are gift tax and possible Medicaid consequences of this so only do this after consultation with an attorney. The better way may be to leave a life estate in the land to your daughter upon your death via a will or revocable living trust and then make the grandchildren the remaindermen. That way, she would have the right to use the land, but not to sell or convey it.

You have a somewhat complicated situation and you really need to spend the money and sit down with a local experienced estate planning lawyer. The lawyer needs tor review your assets and debts and come up with the best plan that is consistent with your goals of keeping the property for your daughter and grandchildren.

Without knowing more, I would suggest having some kind of trust to accomplish your goals. That way, you can ensure that your wishes will be respected and you can provide than your daughter's husband cannot access or have control over any of your money. If you just do nothing and give it to your daughter outright and if something happens to her, then the assets may pass to her spouse and you will not be in a position to stop it. So do things right and go see an estate planning attorney.